I'm going to break my review into two sections: Premise and how well it does it-- then the main content of the story(characters, world, plot).

I had a really good time with this novel, so much so that when I went back to try to watch Season 3-- I found it arduous; thus I dropped the anime. First impressions suggested Danmachi was a "generic hero always win" story, but I found myself feeling tense and excited throughout my read; it gets a solid 8/10, good character writing, a plot that's executed beautifully, and respectable world building.

Premise
The main character is feeble and young-- he's supported by his caring mother-like Goddess. It takes place in a world where monsters spawn inside of a tower, and adventurers explore its depths and kill the monsters along the way-- granting them excelia(experience points from RPGs) that enhances their physical and magical prowess.

Expect combat with medieval armory, generic magic, and players leveling up from fighting strong raid bosses. The main character slowly develops into an independent adult/competent hero as he overcomes one obstacle after another.

That's exactly what you get.

Content
Pros
It's aware of its characters(uses them as much as possible) and occasionally covers their arcs or daily doings, often building the world simultaneously-- it doesn't feel like your time's being wasted when the story is working outside of its very strict building to an epic climax formula that it follows most of the time.

A good portion of the volumes are structured as the following; the monsters start overwhelming the crew, and they eventually power through and get to safe spot. They interact with other people, and then they go back to fighting some large-scale threat where Bell narrowly wins. The author does an incredible job at building up the suspense and finishing it off-- despite it coming as predictable. I'll also grant that the author has 3-4 volumes that subvert this formula-- that're more character orientated and deal with their everyday lives.

Cons
Because of how formulaic the plot is, it makes for a very predictable and tedious experience. He knows how to make those volumes entertaining, but it's hard for me to feel the suspense when I know that everything's going to be fine by the end of it. No one so much as receives a single permanent injury, let alone dies; not even the side characters of Ais' crew. We're led to believe that the dungeon's incredibly dangerous, and to level up you have to in scenarios where your chances of survival are at most 50%. Yet somehow, there isn't a single death or permanent injury; it shatters my suspense of disbelief and comes off as jarring.

There are miscellaneous nitpicks like how the Prum's clothing are exact same, despite escaping poverty and her slave contract. Bell never does maintenance on his primary weapon(even unbreakable swords require sharpening); furthermore, its progress is never mentioned, despite being able to become stronger alongside Bell. Hestia's reasoning to stop Bell from hitting level 5 is contrived. How can Liliruca run away from mobs several levels above her, when there's supposed to be a vast gap in speed between level 2 Bell and the Level 3 Adventurer who clapped him at the bar.

Conclusion
It's a really good read, even though the author's restricted by a type of story that's been retold hundreds of time. It's predictable, repetitive, and my sense of disbelief was shattered. I still think it's a fair 8/10, and most people would enjoy it. I'm tired of these kind of stories, and reading a story where tense moments lack consequences makes for a boring read.